Exclusive: Q&A With The NFL Players Association's George Atallah

This morning BI caught
up with NFLPA Assistant Executive Director of External Affairs
George Atallah, who filled us in on the latest news surrounding
labor talks.

BI: What happened on Wednesday that caused talks to break
down?

GA: “I’m not going to talk about the specifics, or the specific
construct of what happens in those meetings, because I think
there’s still an opportunity to get something done with 19 days
to go. So out of respect for my colleagues, for those guys
on the other side of the table, I think it’s important that they
know we want to negotiate, and we want to have a new deal.
Until we get to a point where we’ve completely lost hope, I’ll
continue to hold out hope. The however piece of this is
that none of these events started yesterday. It’s not like
the players woke up on Wednesday and realized that they may get
locked out on March 4th. This has been something that
actions have spoken to since March of 2008, before they even
opted out. That’s kind of the context that I really want
NFL fans to view this in. It’s not like there’s 19 days to
go and all of a sudden [there’s panic] because there is going to
be a lockout. This is something that we’ve been talking
about for almost two years now.”

BI: What did you make of NFL Senior VP/PR Greg Aiello's
statement yesterday that reports of what went on were "inaccurate?"

GA: “I don’t know. I don’t know what to make of his
statement; I don’t know what to make of the reports out there
that are floating around out there about what happened. I
can just re-iterate directly that I’m not going to characterize
what took place on Wednesday or why the meeting was canceled on
Thursday, other than to say I wish we were talking.
Obviously the best measure I can give you…Domonique Foxworth is
on our executive meeting was at the meeting. He tweeted
that he was disappointed that we weren’t talking. So you
can imply from his tweet about what went on.”

BI: Judging from your tweets, it seems that there's a
strong feeling of frustration on your part. Is that an
accurate word for your feelings at this point?

GA: “Yeah, I mean, I’ve particularly had a sense of urgency since
March of '09, since May of '09, when D [NFLPA Exec. Director
DeMaurice Smith] and the players asked me to take this
position. The writing has kind of been on the wall.
[There’s been] a long litany of things that we call the
lockout checklist of things that they’ve done since March of
'08. I mean look, in March of '08 they hired Batterman, and
two months later they opted out. In December of '08 they
laid off 15% of their staff. That was before the country
was experiencing a recession. In January of '09 they took
American Needle to an appeal to the Supreme Court. February
of '09 Goodell took a pay cut. In March of '09, this is
when things really started to get to a critical mass, in March of
'09 the owners passed a resolution giving NFL teams the option to
opt out of benefit programs for coaches and executives. And
they didn’t tell the coaches until after the resolution was
passed. They did it in a memo where they slipped it under
their doors. I could go on and on, but the writing’s been
on the wall for a very long time.”

BI: So in the opinion of the NFLPA, the NFL has been
preparing for this and expecting it, and willing to do it until
they got their way and they weren't really looking for
negotiations?

GA: “You can characterize it as that, they’ve been preparing for
a lockout, yes, for a very long time.”

GA: “The only thing I can say is we’d be willing to meet
whenever, wherever. We wish we were meeting and we wish
that our meetings were constructive.”

BI: Were the reports of your offer to split total revenue
50/50 just a starting point? Would you have been willing to
negotiate that farther and did the NFL's reaction surprise
you?

GA: “The specifics of our proposals, I’m not going to talk about
in public.”

BI: Was this "veteran
wage scale" disagreeable because the offer basically
suggested that teams should control player salaries for their
first few years in the league, and you feel that by the time
that's up most of your players aren't in the league
anymore?

GA: “Yeah, absolutely. The average player plays 3 ½
years. So you make free agency five years, and how many
people get to free agency? Almost nobody. It’s a big
problem when you can characterize our rookie proposal, as a
willingness to negotiate at worst, and a concession at best, and
we get back what we got back.”

BI: Are you surprised at how things have gone in the last
couple of weeks or couple of months, or did you expect this all
along?

GA: “We’ve been preparing for the worst for quite some
time. Our preparations for the worst are not mutually
exclusive with our commitment to getting the best, and that’s a
fair CBA for everybody. I think to say, ‘well you either
are going to prepare for a lockout, or prepare for a negotiation,
which is it?’ I think that’s a false choice. In
the same way they’ve taken steps to effectuate a lockout, the
players have to prepare for that possible reality. At the
same time, we have put every ounce of our energy into trying to
negotiate a new deal, and that’s the outcome that we want.”

BI: Has there been a reaction of surprise from the
players with the abruptness of how talks were cut off this
week?

GA: “I don’t know. Obviously I’ve talked to a number of
players, and there’s a certain element of frustration, because as
you approach deadline, we’ve 19 days to go, so just from a timing
perspective there’s a greater sense of urgency, but nobody
anticipates what may have happened on Wednesday.”

BI: Did talks pick up last week because we're getting so
close to the March 4th deadline, or was the spirit of Super Bowl
week a contributing factor?

GA: “I don’t know. I’m not involved in scheduling the
meetings, I’m one step removed from the nuts and bolts of that,
but we have worked tremendously hard over the course of the last
23 months to try to get something done. I don’t see a
reason why we’ve got to wait until the last minute. I don’t
see a necessary element of urgency any more than what we
know. This is the most successful game in America, the most
popular sport in America, the most profitable sport in
America. We had a Super Bowl that was the most viewed
television show in this country’s history and the urgency on the
players’ side is not to screw it up. We’ve felt a sense of
urgency for a long time now.”

BI: Popular perception is that the longer a lockout goes,
the more it favors the owners, because they can stomach the
financial losses but not every player makes enough money to last
through a lockout. Have some of those players that aren't
making big money been expressing concern to you lately?

GA: “The concern is not with the deadline approaching, because
that’s been a reality for a long time. I don’t really think
there’s anything we can do other than negotiate as hard as
possible. And try to make sure our players are protected.
The March 4th deadline may raise the sense of urgency for people
that may not have been paying attention, but our players have
been paying attention."

GA: “Only one group of people can effectuate a lockout, so you'd
have to ask the owners.”If ticket holders were
upset about missing the start of the Super Bowl, how will they
react to missing a season?AP

BI: Do you feel that the fans and media have an accurate
grasp of the wants of both sides of these negotiations? Do
you think that fans are more sympathetic to the players right
now?

GA: “I don’t know that there’s a sympathy factor to this, I know
that there’s a fairness factor to this. If the owners
really want $1 billion back in this business, then justify
it. Justification in a business context is financial
transparency. I think that resonates with everyday people
given where our economy is and given the recent collapse in the
financial markets. So if there’s a problem associated with
the business of football, the best way to fix it is
transparency. "D" has said it before, and I’ll echo his
comments. If they open the books, we would have a deal done
in no time. We’ve said to them privately, and we’ve said
this publicly, if there are any leaks or problems with the
system, and they can prove it, the players will make the
concessions necessary to save the game. The problem is
there’s an absence and a lack of information to demonstrate
that. All the information available demonstrates the
contrary. This is the most successful and profitable sports
league in America.”

BI: Last week, Goodell called the NFLPA's requests to see
the league's financial information "a
negotiating ploy." I assume you dispute that?

GA: “Well look, Bob Batterman on the record: financial
information is “none of your business”; Jeff Pash, on the record,
“They have all the financial information they need”; Roger
Goodell on the record [for them to ask to open the books’ “is a
negotiating ploy.” So which one is it? I can tell you
the one it’s not, we don’t have the information. We don’t
know what team profits are, we don’t know what team cash flow is,
we don’t know what the costs for each team are, aside from the
Packers, and that’s one thirty-second of the information.
What [financial] advisor would ever tell you to make a deal based
on one thirty-second of the financial information
available? Nobody.”

BI: Do you foresee receiving the financial information as
the most likely outcome of this situation?

GA: “I don’t know. I don’t know what the most likely
outcome is. I try not to get into projections or
predictions. It makes my job a lot easier if I can focus on
what we know and the realities of our situation. So that’s
what I tend to try to focus on. The reality for every NFL
fan from the players’ perspective is that we want to, and have
worked as hard as we can, to avoid a lockout and negotiate a fair
deal.”

BI: In the past you have been hesitant to come right out
and say about the 18-game season, but it’s been pretty clear that
that’s been kind of a deal breaker on your end. You stance
on that hasn’t changed?

GA: "No."

BI: Is that something that could become negotiable in the
future?

GA: “If there’s information or if they’re willing to consider the
proposal we gave them on 18 games, then that’s a discussion
starter.”

BI: How did you feel the NFL handled the seat debacle
after the Super Bowl? Was it a distraction from the labor
talks?

GA: “No, not really. If the people were outraged that they
couldn’t get seats at the Super Bowl that they’ve paid for,
imagine a world where season ticket holders that have bought
season tickets for years, aren’t even able to get into the
stadium because there’s a lockout.”

BI: That seems a like a logical next step for the "Let Us
Play" campaign. Will you be publicizing more fan stories in
the future?

GA: “The ‘Let Us Play’ campaign is ongoing. It’s a daily
mantra for the players. Until we have a new deal…it’s a
combination of open the books, and 'Let Us Play.'”

BI: Do you think the media leaks help negotiations or
does it just create bad blood on both sides?

GA: “The question about bad blood or whatever, here’s the
reality: ESPN and the NFL recently negotiated a $2 billion
extension for Monday Night Football. How many people
covered those negotiations? How long did those
negotiations last within the room? How did people feel
about those negotiations? I’m asking those questions
because you kind of know the answers. Two business partners
decided to go into a room, there was a valuation for what the
product was, there was some element of financial transparency,
and they got it done. That’s how business partners
negotiate. The owners opted our 1,050+ days ago. We
had to twist their arm to send us a proposal in May of
2009. So, all of those questions to me are, irrelevant is
too strong of a term, but they’re certainly not the core of
what’s going on here. If the NFL can negotiate a $2 billion
with ESPN without the hubbub, then what are we
doing?”NFLPA

BI: So what are DeMaurice Smith and the other leaders of
the NFLPA doing in the interim, in between negotiation
sessions?

GA: “Everything has been geared towards, every day we have our
focus on two things, continue to prepare for the worst, and
continue to work towards the best outcome. Raising
awareness falls under both categories. We want to raise
awareness to our fans that we want a new deal and that we want to
negotiate, and that we want the best outcome. We want to
raise awareness to our fans that this didn’t just start
yesterday, and that it’s unfortunate that we’ve got to discuss a
potential lockout given the success of the game. Those two
focuses haven’t changed since March of 2009.”

BI: Do you think the fans are understanding your
message?

GA: “I think so, I think they do. Our players are the best
messengers, and as long as they’re engaged, our fans will be
engaged. As far as I can see, and from what I know, they’re
engaged.”